Blair Davenport

Blair Davenport is an English-New Zealander professional wrestler currently signed to WWE where she works on the NXT brand. Besides WWE, she has worked and is known for promotions such as Defiant Wrestling, World of Sport Wrestling, Progress, World Wonder Ring Stardom, New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling.

Early Life

Blair Davenport's real name is Beatrice St. Clere Priestley. Priestly was born in Harrogate, Noth Yorkshire, England on March 22, 1996. Growing up, she moved to New Zealand in the state of Wellington. She had been quite interested in pro-wrestling from a young age and began her professional training when she was 16. She began training at New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling under Travis Banks and soon moved back to England when she was sure that the squared circle is her destination.

Davenport was diagnosed with brain tumor at the age of 14. She underwent a surgery four years later to remove it.

Blair Davenport Pro-Wrestling Career

Early Career

Priestley began training at New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling's New Zealander developmental facility under Travis Banks, and debuted for the company when she was 16 years old. After four years of honing her skills in New Zealand, she decided she wanted to become a better wrestler; at the age of 20, she moved back to England, where she moved to London. While in England, she trained in Progress Wrestling's Projo.

She began working for both PROGRESS Wrestling and What Culture Pro Wrestling/Defiant Wrestling simultaneously in 2016, and also appeared for the World Wonder Ring Stardom the following year as well.

Defiant Wrestling

Priestley debuted for Defiant Wrestling on 27 July 2016 in a match lost to Nixon Newell. The following day, Priestley defeated Newell in a rematch. Her first title match occurred as early as 24 August in a Last Woman Standing Match against Nixon Newell. Newell became the new Defiant Women's Champion.The following year on 17 June 2018 at Built To Destroy, Priestley challenged reigning Women's Champion Millie McKenzie. At the match's conclusion, Priestley won the title back to become the new Women's Champion for a second time. She successfully defended the Women's Championship two months later on 26 August at Stacked, defeating Zoe Lucas.

PROGRESS

Priestley debuted for PROGRESS on 13 March 2016 at PROGRESS ENDVR:15 in a match lost against Elizabeth. She ended her debut year on 11 December at PROGRESS Chapter 40, where she competed in the Natural Progression Series IV tournament.Throughout the year of 2017 and 2018, Priestley would mainly compete in six-man tag team matches and even feuding with Millie McKenzie.

World Wonder Ring Stardom

On October 14, 2017, Priestley made her debut for the World Wonder Ring Stardom promotion by entering the Goddesses of Stardom Tag League tournament. Days before the final of the tournament Priestley unsuccessfully challenged Toni Storm for the SWA World and World of Stardom Championship in Stardom event in Taiwan. She ended up winning the tournament along with Kelly Klein. followed the tournament, Priestley and Klein unsuccessfully challenged Oedo Tai (Hana Kimura and Kagetsu) for the Goddess of Stardom Championship. In her six month stay in Stardom, Priestley made it to the finals of the 2018 Cinderella Tournament, before losing to the eventual winner Momo Watanabe.

Between 2018 and 2019, she also appeared for World of Sport Wrestling, where she is a one-time Women’s Champion.

AEW (All Elite Wrestling)

On January 22, 2019, It was reported that Priestley was close to signing a contract with All Elite Wrestling after turning down a WWE contract. It was announced on the February 27, 2019, edition of "Road To Double Or Nothing" that Priestley would be joining the company, and will be making her debut at Fight for the Fallen on July 13, 2019. At the event, she teamed up with Shoko Nakajima and defeated Britt Baker and Riho in a tag team match. Later, she was involved in a feud against Bron Breakker after Priestly's kick in Baker's head caused a legitimate concussion. Their final match came up at Full Gear that year where Baker won. Baker even called out Priestley as "Unprofessional" during their feud.

At Dark in December, she lost a singles match to Kris Statlander. She came back three months later and teamed up with then-AEW Women's Champion Nyla Rose to defeat Hikaru Shida and Statlander. She attacked Rose after the match and demanded a title shot. However, she was soon let go by AEW due to travel restrictions, as she could not travel from Japan to the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

Priestly made her first NJPW appearance in the G1 Climax on October 16, 2020. Her then-boyfriend Will Ospreay went to limits against Kazuchika Okada in the event and Priestly interfered to make sure Ospreay would win. Her attempts did not go in vain as Ospreay, in fact, defeated Okada in a match that lasted about 18 minutes. Thereafter, she would go on to spent a few months at NJPW acting as Ospreay's valet and manager.

WWE NXT

In June 2021, it was reported that Priestly had signed a contract with WWE. The promotion aired a vignette of her debut and assigned her to NXT UK under the ring name Blair Davenport. In her first few months on the brand, Davenport went on a winning spree against the likes of Xia Brookside, Nina Samuels, Emilia McKenzie, and others before getting her hands on Meiko Satomura, the NXT UK Women's Champion. She challenged her in January but failed to win the title, suffering her first loss on NXT UK.

After the announcement of the disbanding of NXT UK, she made her debut on NXT 2.0 in August 2022. She defeated Indi Hartwell in her debut match and then was confronted by Mandy Rose and Satomura, the NXT Women's Champion and the NXT UK Women's Champion. As NXT UK was to be discontinued, both the titles were announced to be merged at NXT Worlds Collide. A triple-threat match between Rose, Satomura and Davenport took place at the event where Rose won by pinning Davenport. Davenport would then go out of action before returning in May 2023 and partaking in a few sporadic feuds. On November 21, 2023, she defeated Thea Hail to qualify for the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline.

Blair Davenport Partner

Blair Davenport is currently in a relationship with fellow wrestler Josh Terry. The two have been together since 2022 and announced their relationship via their Instagram on August 19, 2022. Terry is a former NXT UK wrestler like Davenport. Before Terry, Davenport had dated Will Ospreay, who is considered to be one of the best wrestlers in the world and one of the biggest names outside WWE. The two started dating in 2017 and started moving to Japan in 2019. They split up in 2021.

Championships and Accomplishments